Cooperatives report the best performance of the year

Ecuadornews:

From January to November, the issuance of credits in the country grew by 15.5%, going from $ 29,594 million in 2016 to $ 34,188 million this year. Statistics already predict a good closing of the financial system that this year saw recover the demand for credit in the market and detected opportunities to take advantage of it.

This is the case of the Savings and Credit Cooperatives that until November 2017 point to the best performance, both in deposits and in the delivery of loans. According to a report by the Banco Central del Ecuador, from January to November, this segment of the market reported 29.2% in the increase of its deposits and a 26.1% improvement in the delivery of credits, well above of what private banks achieved that reached 5.2% and 14.5%, respectively.

This lower growth of private banks does not detract from stability and balance in the financial system, but is the result of capturing a lower level of deposits, due to a lower injection of liquidity into the economy in the last 6 months of the year. Julio José Prado, president of the Association of Private Banks, recalled that at the end of last year and early this year, the outgoing government injected a large amount of money on the eve of election time, at levels that were difficult to maintain in the Government by Lenín Moreno. “We knew that already with a new regime it would be very complicated to maintain that same level of liquidity. And that’s why we are closing at deposit levels that we consider more normal within the behavior of the economy. ”

With fewer resources and a distrust of credit that still remains characteristic in a recovering market, the big banks gave part of that space to the cooperatives. “In times of recession, we chose to continue delivering credit, this while private banking was more selective and rigorous in rating. This has generated greater fidelity with our associates and depositors, “said Edgar Peñaherrera, general manager of the Ecuadorian Integration Network of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Icored).

According to the ECB, the cooperative segment reached $ 6,330 million until November of this year, versus $ 5,019 million last year. This higher issuance, without a doubt, is based on an increase in its deposits, which rose from $ 5,169 million to $ 6,678 million this year.

The strategy, as in other years, recognizes Peñaherrera, is still to offer better interest rates for the deposit of these deposits, which are generally up to two points more than what private banks offer.

In this coincides Rosa Matilde Guerrero, an international expert in financial inclusion. In the market, he says, for a deposit with more than 360 days, cooperatives reach an average rate of 8.9%, versus 6.06% of what private banking offers. With this, he said, cooperatives easily secure better deposits.

To this they join, he explains, the market regulations that play in their favor and that are related to more lax rules that allow them to have a greater provision to be able to place money. “While the bank has to comply permanently with the classification of its portfolio and the provisions requirements, the cooperatives have an approximation schedule for the compliance of provisions that reaches up to 2021. Therefore, the power to defer provisions makes that have more resources to allocate to credit” (I)

Source: http://www.expreso.ec/economia/economia-ahorro-cooperativas-dinero-anuales-DK1914500